CICW has awarded Vital Worship, Vital Preaching Grants for over 20 years to teacher-scholars and worshiping communities in 45+ states and provinces and across 40+ denominations and traditions—including Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Pentecostal, non-denominational, and other Protestant communities.


While worship styles and practices vary greatly across these traditions, the grant projects typically explore at least one of CICW’s ten core convictions related to worship. Explore the hundreds of projects we’ve funded across both streams of the program.

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Teacher-Scholar Formation Intercultural

Azusa Pacific University

Alexander Jun

To build on previous research in chapel programs at Christian colleges and universities by examining the role of chapel leaders in shaping chapel content and culture in order to demonstrate how chapel services shape the culture for diverse attendees.

Teacher-Scholar
Azusa, california
2022
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Worshiping Communities Drama/Dance

Bethel Community Presbyterian Church

To strengthen the hermeneutical skills, Biblical literacy, and spiritual agency of worshipers through the development of Bibliodrama in a local congregation that will help traumatized people to find themselves within the story of God.

Worshiping Communities
San Leandro, california
2022
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Teacher-Scholar Visual Arts

Calvin University

James K.A. Smith

To prepare an essay that explores how contemporary visual and literary art fosters contemplative habits, an inviting 'preamble' to spiritual contemplation involved in both personal and communal liturgical practices.

Teacher-Scholar
Grand Rapids, michigan
2022
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Teacher-Scholar Accessibility

Center of Theological Inquiry

Erin Raffety

To conduct interviews with persons living with chronic illness and Long COVID, and to analyze the convergence of cultural, theological, and disability-related perspectives among such persons in order to increase their full, conscious, active participation in worship.

Teacher-Scholar
Princeton, new jersey
2022
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Worshiping Communities Visual Arts

City Chapel (2022)

To engage the beauty of art in worship in order to awaken our understanding and imagination of what it means to care for God’s created world.

Worshiping Communities
Grand Rapids, michigan
2022
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Worshiping Communities Accessibility Education/Leadership

Creston Christian Reformed Church

To empower the congregation and local community in the practice of biblical hospitality in order to reshape the worship experience to be more hospitable by engaging in outdoor worship and community meals.

Worshiping Communities
Grand Rapids, michigan
2022
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Worshiping Communities Architecture/Space

David's United Church of Christ

To create sacred space by experimenting with seating arrangement, various forms of artwork, and sensory experiences in innovative and interactive ways, while being responsive to the needs of ministry during the pandemic.

Worshiping Communities
Canal Winchester, ohio
2022
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Teacher-Scholar Architecture/Space Public Witness

Eden Theological Seminary

Christopher Grundy

To foster imagination about worship spaces that can help to draw people into a deeper relationship with their natural environment, experience that environment as sacred and sacramental, form them spiritually as agents of ecological justice and recovery, and help them to process and respond faithfully to increasing ecological disasters.

Teacher-Scholar
Webster Groves, missouri
2022
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Teacher-Scholar Drama/Dance Formation

Emory University Candler School of Theology

Khalia J. Williams

To explore the theological significance of liturgical dance in Christian worship and to discover and analyze the multiple ways that dance shapes spirituality in worship communities and in individuals.

Teacher-Scholar
Atlanta, georgia
2022
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